


The Incredible Story

by ssenrah



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Alternate Ending, Gen, Series Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-15 23:58:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8078893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssenrah/pseuds/ssenrah
Summary: The way that How I Met Your Mother should have ended, complete with a montage of everything that led to Ted finally meeting the mother of his children





	

Kids, when I first saw your mother, I knew she was something special. Standing in the back of the band, swaying to the music as she played her bass guitar, her hair framing her face perfectly. She was perfect. There was just one problem: I was moving to Chicago. I’d convinced myself that my destiny was there. But I was wrong. It was in New York, with my friends and your mother. I just didn’t know it yet.

“Ted, Ted, Ted, Ted!” Barney said as he ran up to me from across the dance floor.

“Right here, right here,” I said. Your Uncle Barney did that thing with his fingers. “Yeah, I see you, Barney. Right here, right here.”

“Good, great,” he said, “Then it’s time to play a little game I like to call ‘Have’-“

“Yeah, Barney, I… No, no.”

“You are not getting out of ‘Have You Met Ted!’ There’s a girl that you have to meet. She is perfect for you! And has she met you? No, she has not! Think of all the sex you’re gonna have-“

“Barney,” I interrupted him, “I have to go.”

Your Uncle Barney argued with me, but he knew it was no good. I was going to Chicago. There was nothing else to it. So we all went outside to say goodbye. One last goodbye before my train back to the city and my flight to Chicago. I said goodbye to all the gang. I thought that would be it, that goodbye. 

I was wrong. It wasn’t. That was the night that I met your mother. That was the night that everything changed, and for the better. I met the love of my life that night, and she was the reason I stayed in New York. I didn’t move to Chicago because she was here, and somehow I knew that I was right where I was supposed to be: standing beside her, holding hands on our first date. Taking her to the hospital when she was pregnant with you two. Sitting with her when she got sick.

My place was by her side, through all of the long years we were together. We always came back to Farhampton; it was a special place for us. Year after year, we came back to celebrate another twelve beautiful months together. We came back on our one-year anniversary. We were back again a year later for the lighthouse, where I proposed to her. We were back a few years later when your mother was pregnant with you, Luke. We shared so many special moments in Farhampton, it’s hard to count them all.

It was at times a long, difficult road. But I'm glad it was long and difficult, because if I hadn't gone through hell to get there, the lesson might not have been as clear. You see, kids, right from the moment I met your mother, I knew I had to love this woman as much as I can for as long as I can, and I could never stop loving her, not even for a second. I carried that lesson with me through every stupid fight we ever had, every 5:00 a.m. Christmas morning, every sleepy Sunday afternoon, through every speed bump. Every pang of jealousy or boredom or uncertainty that came our way, I carried that lesson with me. And I carried it with me when she got sick. Even then, in what can only be called the worst of times, all I could do was look at her and thank God, thank every god there is, or ever was, or ever will be, and the whole universe, and anyone else I can possibly thank, that I saw that beautiful girl on that train platform, and that I had the guts to stand up, walk over to her, tap her on the shoulder, open my mouth, and speak.

“Excuse me,” I said.

“Hi!”

“Hi! I’m the best man.”

“Yeah! Get in here, get in here,” she told me, holding out her umbrella.

“Oh, thanks. Here, let me.”

“Oh, okay,” she said, handing me the umbrella, “Thank you.”

“Great show tonight!”

“Oh, thank you.”

“You’re Cindy’s ex-roommate, right?”

“Yeah, and you are the professor,” your mother said. She looked away with that little smirk of hers, smiling out of only half of her mouth. “I took one of your classes.”

“Really? Which one?”

“Econ 305.”

“Econ 305? I don’t teach- oh no.”

“Oh, yeah.” That was the first time I heard your mother laugh.

“Excuse me, I’m gonna jump onto the tracks now.”

“No, no, no, don’t. You were great, you were great.”

I was probably about to say something witty about being an architecture professor, but then I noticed something.

“Wait a second. This is my umbrella! I left this umbrella at Cindy’s. You totally stole my umbrella!”

Your mother laughed again. I couldn’t help but smile. She was just so beautiful. “What? No I didn’t! This is my umbrella. I bought this.”

“Excuse me! It even has my initials on it right here: T. M., Ted Mosby.”

“Yeah, look again, Ted Mosby. Those are my initials. T. M., Tracy McConnell.”

“Um, no, Tracy McConnell. It’s T. M., totally my umbrella.”

“Uh, you’re T. M. Terribly mistaken, because this umbrella has always belonged T. M., to me.”

I held my hands out in defeat. Do you remember that look your mother used to have when she was thinking? She had that look just then.

“Although, I did lose it for a few years there,” she said, “So, I went to this dance club-“

“On St. Patrick’s Day,” I said.

“On St. Patrick’s Day,” she repeated.

“And you left it there.”

“And I left it there.”

“And you never thought you’d see it again,” I whispered.

“And I never thought I’d see it again,” she said just as softly, “Funny how sometimes you just… Find things.”

For the first time, it all fell into place. Every step that I’d ever taken had led me right here, to this train station, at this time, with this girl. Every broken heart, every moment I’d ever felt like giving up, right up to that decision to move to Chicago, had led me here. It had led me to your mother. Because you see, kids, it all started when I met your Aunt Robin. If I hadn’t met your Aunt Robin, I would never have dated her and we would have never broken up. I would never have gotten that butterfly tattoo, and I would never have met Stella. I would never have proposed to her, and I would have never been left at the altar, and I would never have gotten a job from her future husband teaching architecture. If I hadn’t been hired as a professor, I never would have been in Econ 305 on the first day of classes. I would never have met Cindy and your mother would never have been playing at Aunt Robin’s and Uncle Barney’s wedding. If I hadn’t met Robin, if I hadn’t been crazy about her, Barney would have never met her. They would never have gotten married, and there never would have even been a wedding for your mother to play at. I would never have been in the rain that night, waiting for the train from Farhampton. And neither would your mother.

But I did meet Robin. I did fall in love with her, we did break up, I did get that tattoo. I did meet Stella, and I got left at the altar, and I met her husband and he got me that job at the university. I was at that Econ 305 class and I met Cindy, and years later, I ran into her and her wife on the train, just days before your Aunt Robin’s wedding when she still needed a wedding band. Cindy’s wife had asked me then if I believed in destiny. And kids? You bet I do. Because if just one of those things hadn’t happened, just one, I wouldn’t have been on that train platform that night in Farhampton in the rain. Holding that yellow umbrella. Standing next to her. Looking at your mother as we met for the first time.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” she giggled.

And that, kids, is the incredible story of how I met your mother.

**Author's Note:**

> For my fanfiction class, we were required to write a piece of fanfiction ourselves. I used the opportunity to fix the atrocious ending to one of the best shows I've ever watched, and give the Mother the respect that she deserves! I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
